Everyone wants to get in on Caps act

HAVE you noticed that now the Black Caps have made Sunday's Cricket World Cup final, everybody is trying to jump on the bandwagon?

Yes, ever since Grant Elliott wielded the hands of god and the inner calm of the Dalai Lama to tower one over the ropes in the Eden Park semifinal, everyone's wanted to get in on the act and have their say.

So why should I be any different?

As a purist who regards test match cricket as the acme of a game that requires physical skill and prowess combined with the mental steel and agility of a chess grandmaster, I have struggled to get excited by the one-day thrash-a-thon. There remain those baffled that two teams could nut it out over five days and still not find a winner when, in fact, this is the crowning glory of the sport.

But even I have to admit that the cliff-hanger against South Africa was a marvellous spectacle. Great television ... reality TV, I guess. But reality in the sense that genuine emotion and drama were on show rather than the fakeness of "reality TV". That game had the X factor - and even a bit of bullying of the South African bowlers.

So, with New Zealand duly captivated, enter the Sensible Sentencing Trust ...

In its ever desperate efforts to stay relevant and in the national spotlight, the trust generously issued a press release congratulating the Black Caps on making the Cricket World Cup final.

How magnanimous of Garth McVicar - apparently back with the trust after failing as a Conservative Party candidate at the last election - to salute our cricketers and say they are setting "a magnificent example for youth".

And McVicar - surely the bandwagon-jumper supreme - was so excited by it all that he forgot to mention efforts by the trust to get parents back legally hitting their kids.

Perhaps next time ... LAST Saturday's Chronicle featured a story about a gay couple getting married atop a mountain.

The story caused some comment and criticism - even the church, which has had plenty of issues with homosexual clergy, chipped in.

There were calls for an explanation of why this story made page 1 and page 3. So here is one ...

When life carries on in its normal day-to-day business sort of way, it is not news. When something out of the ordinary occurs (a bomb goes off in Victoria Avenue; Taihape and Mt Ruapehu has its first same-sex marriage), it is news.

Homophobia - like racism - can be deeply embedded in those who think their way is the only way or the "right" way. It is always sad when people cannot accept and respect the differences of others.